USTA Southern Closed 16s

LaFrance puts up fight but falls short

Katie LaFrance returns a shot to Lauren Gish during the semifi nals of the USTA Southern Closed 16s Championships on Thursday at Burns Park. Gish held on for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory.
Katie LaFrance returns a shot to Lauren Gish during the semifi nals of the USTA Southern Closed 16s Championships on Thursday at Burns Park. Gish held on for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory.

Katie LaFrance seems to have to learned to appreciate effort over results.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

North Carolina’s Lauren Gish defeated Little Rock’s Katie La-France 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 Thursday in a semifinal match at the USTA Southern Closed 16s tournament at Burns Park in North Little Rock. Gish will face top-seeded Madeline Meredith of Alabama at 10 a.m. today in the girls final.

LaFrance, a 15-year-old from Little Rock, marched through opponents with two-set victories en route to the semifinals of the United States Tennis Association Southern Closed 16s Championships, but found herself in a stern test Thursday against Lauren Gish of Mooresville, N.C.

USTA Southern Closed 16s Championships

Burns Park North Little Rock Thursday’s results

SINGLES

BOYS SEMIFINALS

Andrew Redding def. Andrei Duarte 6-3, 7-5

Grant Stuckey def. Jeremy Yuan 6-3, 6-2

GIRLS SEMIFINALS

Lauren Gish def. Katie LaFrance 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 M

adeline Meredith def. Chloe Beck 6-1, 6-2

Gish had prevailed in two matches against LaFrance earlier this year, so LaFrance knew it would take her best to beat Gish. She also knew that even her best might not be enough.

Her best fell short again Thursday, but it took Gish nearly three hours to put away LaFrance in 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory to advance to today's final.

LaFrance said afterward that she still considered her performance a success because of her commitment to the attempt.

"I fought my hardest and did everything I could," LaFrance said after rain forced tournament officials to move Thursday's matches indoors to the Burns Park Tennis Center in North Little Rock. "I came out swinging, and I don't regret anything. She just beat me.

"Today it just wasn't in the cards for me, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

Gish said LaFrance gave her exactly what she expected.

"Katie and I always have really close matches," said Gish, who won their two previous matches 6-5, 6-2. "She's such a great player, and I knew it would be a fight going in."

"I knew it was going to be a challenge," LaFrance said. "I knew she was going to fight her hardest, and I knew I was."

Gish said LaFrance surprised her with her aggressive play early.

"I really didn't know what to do," Gish said. "I just thought, 'I have to get my bearings and go out there and make her hit really good shots to win the point.' "

"I was playing well, but I knew she would only come back playing better," LaFrance said. "That's just how all of our matches go. I had to prepare myself to play even better."

Gish seemed to take control in the second set with momentum that carried into the third, which she began with a service break and a 2-0 lead. But in characteristic fashion this week, LaFrance showed her grit and pulled to within 2-3, but Gish still seemed on the verge of taking control.

Gish was up 30-love with her sights on a 4-2 lead in the final set, but LaFrance battled back to endure five deuce points before Gish double faulted to leave the set tied at 3-3.

"I did really need that," LaFrance said. "After that, I did play as well as I can play. She just played better."

Gish admitted she was thrown off her game a bit.

"I knew it was still the middle of the set and I had time to recover, but it was kind of mental blow to lose that game," Gish said. "It was challenge for me to figure out how to win."

LaFrance will travel with her parents, Stephen and Wendy LaFrance, to the Caribbean this weekend for four weeks of competitive tennis. The trip is one of many advantages Katie LaFrance has derived largely from her late paternal grandfather Steve LaFrance, who parlayed a one-man pharmaceutical operation that he ran in a Pine Bluff department store into private ownership of the USA Drug chain and a warehousing business that he sold in 2012 to Walgreens for $438 million. Steve LaFrance died in 2013.

"I have always admired him and his incredible work ethic, and I have always tried to apply that special gift that he had to my life and everything I do," Katie LaFrance said. "He used it so well, so I've tried to be like him in that way."

"The thing that separates her is her work ethic," Stephen LaFrance said. "She's not the biggest. She's not the strongest. She's not the most naturally gifted by far, but she works harder than anybody out there.

"I'm not sure how much of a parallel there is between business and sports, but she definitely has the No. 1 work ethic."

Sports on 06/19/2015

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